Sabrina Jonnier has just clocked up yet another World Cup win at Bromont DH and 4x World Cup 2009. The fast French rider ploughed her pink Rocky Mountain to victory through the steep, technical course despite qualifying in fifth place due to illness, and now has the 2009 World Cup title sewn up.

Last year, Rachel Atherton won with Sabrina Jonnier second and Tracy Moseley in third, and Tracy was aiming for a win after qualifying fastest yesterday. The British champ showed her experience by using quite different lines to many of the other riders and looked fast on track. As last rider on the mountain, she was fast but not fast enough, finishing back in fourth.

Second place went to young French rider Floriane Pugin. Floriane was the only woman to hit a gap in the top section of the course that claimed comeback king Shaun Palmer in qualifying yesterday, and that move paid off giving her the best result she’s had this year. Japanese rider Mio Suemasa had a great run to finish third, using her trials skills and technical ability to keep it pinned but smooth in the gnarly rocks and ruts. Mio was fastest in timed practice and must be stoked on this weekend’s performance so far, and it’s not over yet – she’s racing fourcross as well in just a few hour’s time. And French National Champ Celine Gros is super consistent this season, rounding out the top five with another podium, she’s ben getting them every race so far.

While French fans will be stoked for Sabrina, things didn’t go quite so well for their other top rider, World number 2 Emmeline Ragot. Emmeline is already riding with a broken ankle, and a crash saw her off the podium in today’s results. After qualifying second, she went over the bars in a steep section and her bike got caught up in the tape, costing her a huge amount of time. She then rode like a ‘crazy horse’ (to use Freecaster commentator Rob Warner’s phrase) to the finish eighth.

The day started with another crash – first rider on track, Joanna Petterson, also fell in the rocks and struggled to get her flow back. During the first riders the leader’s hot seat changed hands many times, with US rider Darian Harvey getting a long turn there before being beaten by French junior Anais Pajot. She was in turn bumped off by Austrian champ Anita Molcik as things started to get heated, before three-time US Champ Kathy Pruitt took the seat back for the US. Canadians Micayla Gatto and Claire Buchar then had great runs to take sixth and seventh respectively.

In the men’s, Greg Minaar won convincingly over fastest qualifier Fabien Barel in second and Sam Hill in third. Gee Atherton was hoping for a win but finished fourth – the Athertons really aren’t having such a good year in ‘09. Hopefully there’ll be some improvement for the three siblings before World Champs – will Rachel fulfill her wish to race? She’s riding again, but competing at Champs is a whole different ball game.

These images are from the Freecaster.tv live feed. Don’t forget you can tune in and watch it live, and it’s the only way to see all the women riders who are not in the top five replays. Totally worth it, even when there’s a ridiculous time zone difference and it’s on a Saturday…

Here are the results from the UCI live timing.

And here’s the ranking for the fastest 25 DH riders in the world right now:

Older: Tracy Moseley Fastest in Bromont Qualifying

Fresher: Bromont Video Roundup

Published on 02/08/2009 by Martha Hucker.